Chip packages are known which house integrated circuits provided on a semiconductor die. The chip package may include traces or other conductors that provide an electrical connection, via bonding wires, for example, to corresponding bonding pads in an integrated circuit. The bonding pads, in turn, input or output electrical signals to or from various devices in the integrated circuit. With improved processing and lithographic techniques, integrated circuit density has increased, and the dimensions of electrical contacts, such as the bonding pads, as well other integrated circuit components, have been reduced. Accordingly, more devices and a corresponding increased number of bonding pads, has been incorporated into integrated circuits.
Chip packages having an increased number of traces or conductors, therefore, are therefore provided in order to provide a sufficient number of electrical connections to such higher density integrated circuits. Typically, however, fabrication design rules require that the traces be spaced from one another by a predetermined distance. Accordingly, larger chip packages may be required to accommodate a larger number of traces. As a result, fewer such larger chip packages may be provided on a printed circuit board (PCB), thereby requiring more PCBs and increasing system cost.
Thus, a chip package is needed that has a relatively small size and can accommodate and provide electrical connections to higher density integrated circuits.